Essay Sample on The Essence of Language for Humanity

Uniqueness is a concept that has engrossed humanity as far back as history books date; from the ever-burning question of are we alone in the universe to as simple as is our relationship with our pets on par to a relationship one would have with a family member or close friend. 

As a result, we turn to language, language is how we as humans communicate with one other and it has since fascinated us to find out if other species on earth or in space would be capable of this concept which is so central to the idea of what makes us human.

As such, the objective of this paper is to dive into this idea and thinking and provide analysis on why the concept of language is such essence to the ideal of humanity and what makes us unique.

Introduction

Humans are a complex and normative species (Schmidt et al. 2019) and we strive to find another as unique and special like us. We project what it is to be human onto other creatures, such as pets, the concept of AI and machines and the wishful concept of E.T life-forms. We’ve conducted several experiments with animals in the hopes of replicating the gift of language that humans possess in a creature that is not human, we’ve written and filmed countless Sci-Fi works to showcase this endless crusade of finding another life-form similar to us in a humorous and somewhat desperate manner. 

But what it is truly to be human, what does it take to be able to identify the concept of humanity and be able to say this is unique to humans? The biggest underlying factor to answering this question is not just our intellect but our capacity to reason (Hall 2018). Our ability to be able to question what is it that sets us separate, to be able to look at our pets, the animals that share the earth with us and be able to ask “Can you do what I do? Can you ‘speak’ to me as I’m speaking to you?”

Human or not?

While language is something that we humans almost gatekeep, it is deeply rooted in our society and vast array of cultures around the globe, forms of human language and linguistics span across history from the first bible to early cave paintings and carvings on stone, it isn't unique to humans alone. It seems that the vast majority of life forms and species on earth have some form of language in their biological make-up, whether it be the simple dance honey bees partake in to convey pollen information, to inter-species communication, such as a rattlesnake shaking its tail informing a potential threat of the danger in provoking the snake would entail.

And yet the manner in how we humans use language is peculiar, we have different variations of variations for things as simple as greetings, in Ireland alone, in the bigger cities such as Dublin and Cork, it could be as simple as “Hey, how’s it going” while in more rural Ireland you could be greeted more colloquially, such as “Well, how’re you?”, there’s no true purpose for such slang and colloquialism to arise, it serves no evolutionary purpose, animals don’t have such mannerisms that a certain group of sheep on one farm will interact in a certain way and the next group of sheep two fields over will interact with one another in the same manner as the last group but with certain different mannerisms. It seems to be something unique to humans.

The closest humanoid relative we have would be our primate cousins; chimps and apes, and for ages, we’ve divulged into linguistic, cognitive and behavioural experimentation with these primates in the hopes of teaching them our manner of linguistics while trying to learn from them, how do our closest relatives communicate. And so far, we’ve yet to have a cohesive inter-species communicative conversation to the extent that we, as a people, would be content in saying “yes, you (another species) are like us (humans). You too have human-like qualities and can convey this to us in a human-like fashion.”

The growth of human communication

Starting off, the manner in which humans have used language to communicate to one another way has grown from something very rudimentary, very basic; simple gestures or cave drawings, nothing like the complex system we have today involving the use of future thought, slang, complex structure. We used to be just like any other animal species, our language was restricted by our simple wants; survival. There was no need to evolve our form of communication until we did, and suddenly what set us above other animals was this newfound way of communicating amongst ourselves using grunts, drawings and careful planning to become an alpha predator in the eco-system.

Today language forms an essential part of different cultures, it is integrated into the interaction of language speakers (Kramsch, C, 2014), and there is depth and meaning to what we say, what we mean in our words and how we convey what we want to mean vs how we want what we mean to sound to one another (Cherry C, 1966), a sentence as simple as “I’m going to be so tired after my workout today,” has meaning and has worth to its words, there’s feeling, future-thought and complexity in that sentence alone, questions such as “Why will this person be tired?” or “Surely if working out will make this person tired they could avoid said tiredness?”, it’s the use of future-thinking and the capacity to poke and prod such a simple sentence and analyse its every letter which is something that humans yearn to find in other life-forms, can another being be as capable of stringing such a sentence? Is there another creature as advanced as us in their form of language and linguistics to match ours, as surely this something key to humanity, the ability to future think, our rationale, our language?

Humanity’s desire to be unique

As we look at other evolved species we learn that we aren’t the only ones who’ve evolved our form of communication, dolphins can use a form of clicking to convey messages amongst themselves, peacocks can flaunt their colourful feathers as a way to attract mates, yet humans are the only ones equipped with a language to not only communicate with one another, but to enjoy the company of one another and to project our language onto other species to enjoy their company as well in a vastly complex manner, which begs the question as we do so, is humanity truly that unique as clearly other animals are capable of some form of communication and rational thinking, which have always been deemed as human qualities alone, or is it that we need to prove that we are unique by trying to project our concept of what it is to be human onto others.

It’s in almost desperation in which we search for another life-form to have the same uniqueness that we deem human qualities, and yet there’s a sense of superiority in this. Ever since Galileo disproved an age-old idea that we humans were the centre of the universe, that everything revolved around the earth, there’s been a sense of displacement for us humans, there’s a void left in knowing that we’re no longer special, and so we cling to the ideals that our rationale, our ability to communicate using language sets us apart from an ant, we’re still unique because of these traits.

There’s a sense of pride as well in our search as we’re able to hold onto our uniqueness, that it is our language and our capacity to reason that sets “the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower animals” (Darwin, 1871).

Language and Humanity

Language is what makes us human, it’s what sets humanity apart from other species, our ability to reason with one another, our cognitive capacity to understand not just other humans but other life-forms and finally our thirst to find another like us is what sets us apart and makes us unique in ourselves, its why only as Dunbar (et al 2014) claims that only humans were capable of language to the extent that we have been able.

And so, to conclude, language is key to being human, to be able to claim a uniqueness to humanity, to be able to claim that no other species nor life-form partakes in a language like us is of essence to this claim and to be able to convey the message “I’m only human” as what makes us human isn’t just our intellect, nor our self-given superiority from technology or an evolutionary purpose, it’s the closeness that as a species language brings to us and makes us a people and that we can say to be human means that we are special.

Bibliography & References:

Cherry, C., 1966. “On human communication”. 215, available On human communication Darwin (1871, p 430)

Dunbar, R.I.M., Dunbar, R.I.M., Gamble, C. and Gowlett, J.A.J. eds., 2014. Lucy to language: the benchmark papers. Oxford University Press, available: Lucy to Language

Hall, T.F., 2018. “Why humans are different”. -  Animal Sentience, 3(23), p.7, available: Why are humans different

Kramsch, C., 2014. “Language and culture”. - AILA Review, 27(1), pp.30-55, available: Language and Culture

Schmidt, Marco FH, and Hannes Rakoczy. "On the uniqueness of human normative attitudes." - The normative animal (2019): 121-138, available: On the uniqueness of human normative attitudes.